


In Defense of a Dead World

by bardsley



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Gen, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-25 06:01:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22427374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bardsley/pseuds/bardsley
Summary: Bones, Spock and Uhura go on a mission.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17
Collections: Past Imperfect Future Unknown 2019





	In Defense of a Dead World

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Satchelfoot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Satchelfoot/gifts).



If he did die here, Bones thought, at least he’d die with family. Spock and Uhura were that. He crowded close to them, staring out at the cosmic storm through the Galileo's main viewer screen. The shifting light from the cosmic storm painted their skin iridescent orange, sickly green, and violent purple. 

Before they left for the secret mission, Bones had thought the Romulans might kill them. Being this close to the Neutral Zone always made him jittery. Bones didn’t know how he felt about a force of nature denying the Romulans the privilege. 

Uhura’s lovely mouth was soft with amazement. Her lips formed a delicate circle of admiration as she looked out at the storm that would probably kill them. Space was a cold, cruel void. One of its greatest cruelties was that it was so often beautiful when it was deadly. 

Even Spock looked awed. Bones might have poked Spock about that but he did not want to ruin the breathlessness of this moment. Not when it might be one of their last. 

Bones’ own sharp breath sounded loud in the quiet of the shuttlecraft. He was a doctor, dammit. The thought of anyone, let alone his friends—crewmates—family— _ these people that he loved _ —dying and there not being anything he could do about it galled him. 

The beeping of the console and the quiet murmur of Spock and Uhura’s voices soothed him. He didn’t listen to what they were saying. They were talking about the storm. He was only interested in the storm the way a bug is interested in the hand about to squash it. That didn’t match with Spock and Uhura’s scientific fascination. 

Bones looked out at the shimmering death and let the noises wash over him. He felt small. He felt small the way he had felt when he was a boy and he laid in the tall grass behind the barn. He would lay on his back with his hands pillowed under his head. He looked out at the stars and tried to imagine how big a universe could be. 

Bones didn’t have any better answer to that question now than he had when he was a boy. Pretty damn big, that’s how big. Bigger than humans were capable of understanding. And people were small. Smaller than they could realize. 

But being small didn’t mean unimportant. 

Bones watched Uhura turn back to her station. His attention shifted back through space and time to the inside of the shuttlecraft. She began her distress call to the  _ USS Enterprise _ . Her voice was calm and unhurried. 

The mission had called for “Radio Silence”. Spock and Uhura must have decided that the situation warranted disobeying that part of their orders. 

Orders were for them to tell Starfleet why there were signs of life coming from a long-dead world. The people of the unnamed planet had traveled among the stars when the people of Earth were still trying to figure out how to cross an ocean. But, near as anyone could tell, the people had all died out long ago. By the time humans had taken “one giant leap for mankind”, pollution or war or volcanic activity or some combination of the three left the planet uninhabitable. 

That’s why it got Starfleet’s ire up so much when the planet started showing signs of life. The life signs were intermittent and inconsistent. Sometimes there appeared to be a thriving population approaching the industrial age. Other times, it looked like a civilization with advanced warp capabilities was polluting itself to death. 

Suspicions were that the Romulan Empire had made the world an outpost. Hungry for territory and information, the Romulans were thought to be encroaching on Federation Space. The base would let them spy from closer up. The inconsistent life sign readings were the result of a failed attempt to hide Romulan activity. 

At least, that was what Star Fleet suspected. Suspicion was not the same as proof. No one in the Federation wanted to make an accusation without proof. So, it was proof they were supposed to get. 

And, they were to do it subtle-like too. It was a good, ole-fashion Catch-22. Can’t accuse the Romulans of doing something without proof. Couldn’t get proof without accusing the Romulans, at least implicitly. So, they were supposed to be sneaky. That was why they were out on their own with fewer than the regular number of crewmates for an away mission. That’s why they were not supposed to call for help. 

Well, to Hell with that. 

There had been no sign of the Romulans. No signs of anything but this storm. Bones had no idea how a cosmic storm could cause life signs to appear and disappear on a dead world, but they had all seen stranger things. 

Uhura’s voice stayed steady even as the storm swallowed them. Spock pulled Uhura away from her station as the inside of the shuttlecraft crackled with electricity. Uhura was startled but unhurt. Her long brown fingers curled in the blue of Spock’s uniform shirt. She sat, half on Spock’s lap, watching the instruments spark and dials bounce madly. 

The expression on her face was not frightened. She looked vaguely betrayed. Bones could not blame her. Uhura was the best Communications Officer that Bones had ever known. She always treated those instruments well. They were letting her down now. 

As soon as the sputter of electricity stopped, Uhura was back at her station, checking out the damage. Spock moved to do the same at his station. Bones used his tricorder to try to figure out what damage had been done to the three of them. None. Yet.

“This can’t be right,” Uhura said. Bones heard it more as telling the Universe that it was up to no good than saying she didn’t believe the readings. 

“Yet there does not appear to be any instrument failure,” replied Spock. 

“What is it?” Bones asked. Even to himself, he sounded irritable. 

“We have traveled a significant distance,” Spock said. 

Bones looked out to the unnamed planet. The storm was gone. The planet was still there. It looked greener than it had before. Bones attributed that to the storm having distorted the color to his simple human eyes. 

“No, doctor,” Spock said. “We have not traveled in space, but in time.”

Damn overly-dramatic Vulcans. Spock could have just said it was a matter of time travel from the beginning. The pointy-eared wise guy had led Bones to the wrong conclusion for cheap melodrama. 

“How?” Bones demanded. 

Spock did not look up from the instruments he was tapping at. “I do not know.”

“Sir?” Uhura said urgently. 

They both looked up to see a giant ship larger than the  _ Enterprise _ fill the viewer screen. Bones thought it was a ship, leastwise. It was a series of metallic-looking interconnecting rings that spun around a fiery core that burned with alternating orange, green, and purple light. 

“Hail the—”

Spock did not get a chance to finish the command before Bones heard the voice. The voice did not come out over the com. It was within his own mind. 

_ You have intruded into Nautarian territory.  _

“We didn’t mean to—” Bones began to protest out loud. Anything capable of talking into his mind may well be able to hear him even if ship-to-ship communication had not been established. But his protestation just left him feeling queasy. He clenched his jaw shut so tight that his back teeth hurt and swallowed back anything that threatened to come up. 

_ Trespass is not to be tolerated at any time. You will be disrupted.  _

Uhura and Spock both jumped back as the electricity overtook the controls again. 

Uhura looked down disconsolately. 

Spock muttered a quiet, “Fascinating. Forced time travel as a planetary defense.” 

Bones was pretty sure Spock meant it too. Being hurtled away from their time was just ever-so interesting to Spock. 

Bending over the controls, Uhura said, “We are back to our own time.”

Something was wrong. She did not sound happy. 

Spock looked surprised and looked at his own instruments. Bones did not care if Spock would admit it or not. The man had looked surprised. Just like he looked wryly dismayed now. 

“That is accurate,” Spock said. “We have returned to our time, but not, it seems, to our universe.” 

Bones’s stomach dropped.

Uhura must have known that from the beginning. Bones had to give it to her. That was how you did drama. 

Bones took slow, deep breaths of the recirculated air. The air should have smelled sterile. Instead, it smelled crisp with scented soap Spock used and the light perfume Uhura used that smelled like clean rain. 

“Sir,” Uhura said, “We are being hailed. By the  _ ISS Enterprise _ .”

No. Dammit. They’d gone back there?

Bones felt his knees lock. He didn’t register Spock’s reply until the bearded face of— _ that Other _ filled the main viewscreen. 

“Fascinating,” Other said.

Spock, his Spock, the real Spock, raised an eyebrow and said, “Agreed.” 

And that was the last thing Bones heard for awhile. He could still feel the press of the Other against his throat. Bones had taken worse beatings. A Hell of a lot worse. But they had not come from someone who looked like, smelled like, and, God damn it, felt like they were coming from someone he loved. 

The sound of blood rushing in his ears reminded Bones that he was alive. He focused on staying upright and not looking scared. 

Spock talked to himself. Bones had the sense that a negotiation was happening even though he wasn’t paying much attention to the details. Didn’t matter. He trusted Spock. That Other would not take that trust from him. From them. 

The cadence of Spock’s voice sounded emotionless and calm. That was hogwash. Bones thought that he probably looked calm too. They were both fakers. Standing behind Spock like this, Bones could see the blood rising to Spock’s face painting the back of his neck a deeper green. 

Bones shifted subtly, leaning an arm on the back of Spock’s chair. Bones thought he saw Spock’s subtle nod of appreciation. 

Maybe not. 

Maybe they were here for a reason. Letting that  _ Other Enterprise _ know about technology like this could not be good. What would they do with it?

What were the Nautarians doing with it? Stealing away innocent people through time and other dimensions to defend their long-dead territory. What was the point?

“Doctor?” Spock said. Lifted eyebrow meant he had probably said it more than once. 

Bones cleared his throat. “What?”

“What do you think our chances of survival are given those physical parameters?” Spock said, then repeated what the parameters were. Bones knew that if not for the bearded bastard on the screen, Spock would be scolding Bones for woolgathering. Bones was grateful he didn’t. Spock was humane. He wasn’t like that Other One. 

For the rest of the nightmare, Bones kept his mind busily occupied doing what he did best, keeping people alive. They didn’t make it easy. The elements needed to replicate the temporal apparently-not-a-storm-after-all were toxic to anything living. He kept his head down and did his job. Bones didn’t doubt it would work. 

One Spock was too smart for his own good. Two Spocks, well, that was too smart for anybody’s good and as close to infallible as anybody but God would be. 

Had to get those two away from each other. 

When Uhura declared they were home, Bones muttered a sincere, “Hallelujah.”

Spock rolled his eyes. 

Bones smiled. He rocked back on his heels. Good old Spock.

When they were back safely on the bridge of the _USS_ _Enterprise_ , Bones asked, “What are we going to do to keep that other Enterprise away from the Nautarian technology?”

“We are going to do nothing,” Spock answered. “That universe is their concern.” 

“That technology is dangerous!” Bones hissed. 

“Which is why I suspect that their ship’s commander will leave it alone,” Spock said. 

Bones knew what he was thinking. Spock thought if anyone understood That Other, it was him. Spock never understood people. Least of all himself. 

“At least we can inform Starfleet of the cause of the inconsistent life sign readings,” Uhura interrupted, changing the subject. 

She was always a peacemaker. 

“It is probable that the lingering effects of the space-time disruption technology are responsible,” Spock mused. 

“Starfleet will have to cordon off the area somehow,” Bones said. “And for what?”

“I doubt the Nautarians intended for the results of their defense system to outlast their own civilization,” Spock said. 

“Given the nature of the defense system, that is probably something they should have considered,” Uhura said. 

Spock hummed and nodded. 

Everything was so normal. It was completely strange. A few hours ago, Bones was sure they would be dead. Now, he wasn’t even sure that the planet was dead, not really. Rather than fighting the Romulans, the Federation would probably end up warning them.

“Strange, isn’t it?” Uhura asked. 

Spock made an inquisitive sound. 

“The things people will do to defend their home,” she said. 

Bones looked out at the people who were his home. 

No, he thought, that was the only part of all this that did not seem strange at all. 


End file.
